Learn About Your Audience by Asking the Right Questions

Asking your audience or fans some questions is a great way to engage them in conversation. But don’t ask questions just to get a sale or promote a service. Ask questions because you are genuinely interested. Here is an easy exercise how you can learn more about your audience:

Pretend you are a dog owner. You’re scanning through your social media account and land on a post by a dog groomer.

Which question would you rather answer?

Do you like giving your dog a bath?

or

Asking all dog owners…how do you make Fido more comfy when giving him a bath?

The first question asks for a “yes or no” answer. It’s easy to get a answer, but the second question gets people talking. If you are a dog owner, you’ll know that we’ll do anything possible to make Fido as happy as can be and you’ll share your own story or troubles with giving Fido a bath.

By asking something that has an emotional attachment, you are more likely to get a response and learn so much more then if you would have just gotten a “yes or no” answer. I created this graphic to create some relevance to the question. Using pink for the heart is soft on the eyes and the puppy is so darn cute!

Carol, I visit your page to pick out one thing to focus on that related to me. Essential Oils. I’m going to share a story and will strip it down to the basics.

I was recently diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. 3 sleep studies were done. I’m on a CPAP machine now. I have severe nasal congestion when I lay down. was using a nasal decongestant every night, didn’t care it was addictive and bad for me. I just wanted to sleep. Doctor gave me heck and just prescribe a nasal spray – big waste of $50 a month for 3 months. Complained to the Doctor it didn’t work, he said keep doing it and do a nasal rinse before bed. Did some research and what works for me is a tiny bit of Eucalyptus Essential Oils on an extra filter pad just placed outside the incoming vent for my CPAP machine. No different than the traditional use for it, except it’s more focused on where it’s going. In the air, it bothers my eyes, but not the way I’m doing it. Did more research and found a a company in the US that sells little pads and certain scents just for CPAP users.

So you could use the concept of essential oils helping people with allergies or nasal congestion. Or to relax, stress reduction. Be very specific.

I don’t know if this helps, but thought I’d share it with you anyways 🙂

Awhile ago I did a workshop called The Art of Creative Conversations, (after all I am a Conversational SparkPlug), and my biggest takeaway was around the idea of asking questions that lead to conversation and engage the other person. From there you continue to ask questions based on their answers, not on your agenda. Not only do you learn more about the other person, but you also find they open up and trust you more fully too! Thanks for reminding me of this wonderful way of interacting in the world, Gisele!

I found the with my clients on a first meet, they had a blank look on their face when asking that. Like that dreaded blank page when writing a post 🙂 We changed to ask them what goals they had for their business and then offer how we could help with that.

Love it, Gisele. I realized not too long ago when I asked questions on my Facebook profile it generates some really fun and engaging conversation. Definitely looking at ways to tweak the types of questions I use for each audience and platform. Great advice.

Learning more about your audience is one of the most important endeavors that the speaker must take into consideration. This is departing from your motive of getting a sale or promoting a service. Bringing this issue is a homecoming of sorts which calls for a warm of welcome.

I don’t have a problem responding to questions that may be yes or no… lol I can talk with the best of them… and everyone has an opinion. lol Even a “Don’t you hate it when you are washing your dog and they shake their soapy wet hair all over you?” That’s a yes or no, but it makes people think about a story… lol

When meeting a client for the first time, I try to use open ended questions and I can tell which clients are a little uncomfortable with that, which becomes something to work out without them even knowing it.

Such great advise. Being a personal trainer, all I did was ask open ended questions. There are so many but they were all to clients I already had, or to people who came to see me about signing up. Then I would ask things like: what’s the most important thing for you to get our of working with a trainer? or Why is it you want to reach this goal now?

Being a personal trainer, that’s really the only way to learn about what you can do for your client. If they don’t tell you what they want, how can you provide service. Do your clients find it difficult to open up personally to some of the questions?

As an English teacher, I learned early the value of open-ended questions. While I have to work at being the “conversational sparkplug” like Beverley Golden, lol, I do like asking questions to keep the person talking so I can find more common ground with her (or him). I never do this on FB, though, so maybe I should think about that. Hmmmm. Thanks, Gisele 🙂

Do you have more of your conversations on your blog? that’s always the first start point and the best place to converse with people (just my opinion). Social media is just an add on. If you hold more of your conversations on your blog, you could then just share the post on FB/Twitter possibly with a snippet of a comment.

Your Prism piece has complementary colours (blue and yellow) which is a beautiful contrast, you could ask what are their two favourite stones are. Do you prefer beads or stones in your necklace? What is your favourite metal combinations? Do you prefer gold, silver, copper? Hope this helps?

Open ended questions let you listen and learn about the person you are conversing with. We all know we should spend more time listening and now we know how to go about prompting our conversation partner to talk about themselves. Now we are on the way to finding out what is unique about the other person and what words they use to talk about what they like. Now we know how to market to our ideal client.